Manchester Directors Updated On Broad Street Project

MANCHESTER — — The board of directors heard a report Tuesday night on the reconstruction of Broad Street.

Originally estimated for completion by the end of June, the approximately $4.5 million project is now slated to be finished in mid-July, General Manager Scott Shanley said.

The project, which is focused on Broad Street between Center Street and West Middle Turnpike, includes roadway resurfacing, installation of sidewalks and granite curbs, landscaping and decorative streetlights. The state Bond Commission approved $3 million for the project in 2011; the town is responsible for the rest.

The contractor has been working on the section from Little Street to West Middle Turnpike. Crews should be finished with sidewalks and granite curbing on the west side of that section this week and then will begin work on the other side, Public Works Director Mark Carlino said. Once that work is done, that section of roadway will be resurfaced.

The project's biggest challenge has been installation of the Bigelow Brook culvert because there are so many subsurface utilitiies in that area, Shanley said. Completing the culvert installation and resurfacing the roadway over the culvert, Carlino said outside the meeting, will be the last major piece of the project to be completed.

Directors were to discuss proposed amendments to the Broad Street Redevelopment Plan, which aims to revive the area. But because of errors in the published notice for a public hearing on the item, discussion was postponed to a later meeting.

The proposed amendments include adding properties, or property rights, in the redevelopment area that could be acquired by the town, either by purchase or through eminent domain. The properties include the Parkade Cinemas, an adjacent vacant parcel and 357 Broad St., which now houses an auto repair business.

Michael Levesque, owner of J&M Motorsports, told directors he was confused about why they would want to take the property, which he recently began leasing with an option to buy. Mayor Leo Diana told Levesque that directors have made no decisions on the proposed amendments.

Mark Pellegrini, director of neighborhood services and economic develoment, wrote in a recent memo to directors that there have been no active negotiations with the owner of 357 Broad St., but the redevelopment agency felt the time was right to include the property in the proposed amendments "in the event the agency finds favorable opportunities to acquire properties or rights associated with the extension of Center Springs Park in the future."

The redevelopment plan includes a connection between the park and Broad Street. Directors have approved construction of a large archway through the ridge that separates the street and the park as part of the replacement of the Edgerton Street culvert.